


Lunch at Tony's

by shieldivarius



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Established Relationship, Multi, Post Avengers (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-13
Updated: 2013-04-13
Packaged: 2017-12-08 09:03:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/759572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shieldivarius/pseuds/shieldivarius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony’s not dumb, there’s something going on at the lunch table, but it can’t be what it looks like, can it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lunch at Tony's

He hadn’t forgotten that Romanoff and Barton were the only members of their little team who’d reappeared after the scattering to the winds post-New York. They thought he had—Coulson, too—but he hadn’t.

He’d had Pepper invite them to lunch in stage one of what he was hoping would eventually result in all of the Avengers having a central place to crash, and work from, when they were in town. He’d even designed dedicated floors, using what he’d managed to glean of each and every member’s personality from their S.H.I.E.L.D. files (and what little he knew about them from fighting alongside them, but that hadn’t helped much) to work out what would be best where.

He’d put a lot of thought into it. Tons of it, in fact, and it wasn’t exactly brainpower that was helping S.I. any, so a little bit more gratitude and a little bit less of the furtive, amused looks around the table from the spy, the archer and the suit would be appreciated. But whatever, he’d known going in that Barton and Romanoff would be the hardest to sell this idea on, so here he was. Sharing a bottle of champagne with them, and wishing Pepper hadn’t vanished to the bathroom because he needed to make sure that he was actually seeing what he was seeing and wasn’t imagining it.

First thing he’d noticed, because it was really hard to miss, was the way the two had framed Coulson. Sat down on either side of him instead of right next to each other like he’d been expecting—he’d seen them at that shawarma joint, Barton’s foot up on her chair, all buddy-buddy and way too friendly. Tony would admit that he’d given the guy a very firm clasp on the arm when he’d arrived—Pepper had hugged him, tightly (Tony was a little jealous)—but the two of them were positioned like bodyguards, and that was weird.

He was also pretty sure that something was going on underneath the table. Something he couldn’t see right now, but that he was going to get J.A.R.V.I.S. to show him the playbacks on later, because he’d installed security cameras _exactly_ for things like catching high-ranking government agents playing footsie in his dining room.

Of course, it probably wasn’t what it looked like, because that was crazy. And he couldn’t mention it to Pepper later without proof, because, well, if he were wrong it would just _prove_ that he was crazy.

 

He didn’t manage to get Romanoff _or_ Barton to agree to move in with him by the end of the lunch, but that was okay. He hadn’t expected to, had known they were both going to be hard nuts to crack. So when they left, filing out together with Coulson in tow, he wasn’t disappointed.

Getting J.A.R.V.I.S.’s input afterward, too, would mean that he could revise his plans to make everything a little more _enticing_ for the little Spy-faction threesome. He could offer them a couple of floors, massive bedroom, and massive bed to go in it.

And then he could send Pep to work on Coulson, get him to see that moving in here would be _exactly_ what the three of them needed. Because there was absolutely no question in Tony’s mind, after seeing the body language those three had exerted, where the persuasive power in _that_ group lay.

 

Tony was so stoked by it all that he wasn’t even disappointed later when, upon reviewing the tapes, he couldn’t see if the three had been playing footsie after all. (They had been. _They totally had been._ )

**Author's Note:**

> http://shieldivarius.tumblr.com


End file.
